Why it works: Clam and butter work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 840 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Beoiled Beef Steak with Clam Blanket
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Cook the steak
Wipe the sirloin steak and broil for 5 minutes.
Remove the steak onto a hot platter.
Top and serve
Cover the steak with clams.
Place the platter in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) and cook until the clams are plump.
Spread with Maitre d'Hotel Butter and serve immediately.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together840 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sirloin steak
- Provides the main meat, which browns under the broiler and develops savory flavor.
- Clams
- Plump in the oven heat, adding a briny, tender topping over the steak.
- Maitre d'hotel butter
- Melts over the hot steak and clams, adding richness and moisture to the surface.
The step that matters
Cooking the clams in the hot oven. Clams toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked. Cook only until they plump and their edges curl, since the residual heat of the steak and platter keeps working on them.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.